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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    US National Guard Chief: 'Decision Made' on Shifting Apaches to Active Army

    US National Guard Chief: 'Decision Made' on Shifting Apaches to Active Army

    Apr. 8, 2014 - 05:31PM
    By MICHELLE TAN



    An AH-64 Apache assigned with the US Army Europe's 12th Combat Aviation Brigade prepares for departure during a March 28 exercise. Gen. Frank Grass, the National Guard's top general, appeared resigned to a plan that moves all of the branch's AH-64 Apache helicopters into the active Army. (Spc. Glenn M. Anderson / Army)




    The National Guard’s top general on Tuesday appeared resigned to a plan that moves all of the branch’s AH-64 Apache helicopters into the active Army.

    Gen. Frank Grass, who just last week testified on Capitol Hill that he opposes the plan, said on Tuesday that he’s focused now on how to best implement the moves.


    “As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we have fought and we have discussed many, many times these topics,” Grass said Tuesday while testifying in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.


    He’s “given my best advice, but the decision has been made,” Grass said.


    Air Force Maj. Shannon Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Guard, confirmed Grass’ remarks.


    “These are very difficult decisions and there will be more difficult ones yet to come,” she said. “His focus now is to determine the impacts and how best to implement the decision.”


    Under the aviation restructuring plan, which is in the Defense Department’s fiscal 2015 budget request, the Army would divest its fleet of OH-58 Kiowa helicopters and use the Apache to fill the Kiowa’s reconnaissance and scout role.


    It would pull Apaches from the Guard inventory to fill the gap, and the Army would provide the Guard with UH-60 Black Hawks, which Army officials believe will give the Guard more capability.


    Army officials have said the active Army would lose 23 percent of its aircraft while the Guard would lose 8 percent of its inventory under this plan.


    It’s widely believed that the six-year aviation restructuring plan will become a reality, and the moves will be completed by the end of fiscal 2019.


    Still pending, however, is legislation introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., that would establish a national commission to study the makeup of the Army and prohibit the service from divesting, retiring or transferring any aircraft from the Army Guard.


    Last week, Grass told the House Appropriations Committee the Guard has “provided an alternative solution” that would transfer about 40 percent of its Apaches into the active Army. The Guard would then retain enough Apaches to keep six attack battalions in its formation. The Guard has eight Apache battalions.


    Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, who testified alongside Grass Tuesday, said the aviation restructure allows the Army to “eliminate obsolete airframes, reduce sustainment costs and organize ourselves to meet our operational commitments and imperatives.”


    In addition to the aircraft moves, the aviation plan includes inactivating three combat aviation brigades from the active Army and moving all of the active Army’s LUH-72 Lakotas to Fort Rucker, Ala., to be used as training aircraft.


    The Army Guard will retain 10 aviation brigades and all of its Lakotas, and receive 111 Black Hawks.


    “We must make sure we have the best Army possible, even under full sequestration,” Odierno said.


    http://www.defensenews.com/article/2...sey=nav%7Chead
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Army considers basing some attack helicopters on Navy ships

    Posted on: 3:22 pm, April 14, 2014, by Matt Knight
    Photo GalleryEXPAND1 of 5

    • Army AH-64D Apache helicopters practice operating from the USS Ponce in 2012. (U.S. Navy)


    Norfolk, Va. – The Army is considering certifying some of its attack helicopters to operate from ships, according to the Army Times.

    That mission has historically been conducted by the Marine Corps, but the Army is looking to broaden the role it would play in operations in the Asia/Pacific region.


    The service has been running drills on landing AH-64 Apache helicopters on Navy ships in recent months, but no official decision has been made.
    So how does the Marine Corps feel about the Army doing this?

    “I’ve never been on a crowded battlefield,” Lt. Gen. John Wissler, commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Marine Corps Forces Japan, told the Defense Writers Group on April 11. “I’ve never been anywhere where I said … ‘There’s too many guys here.’ ”

    But there would be challenges. While the Army is “making strides in learning how to operate” at sea, Wissler said there is an “unknown, hidden cost” associated with operating aircraft in saltwater environments.

    “[Marine Corps] helicopters are different than [Army] helicopters,” he said. “The maritimization of an aviation platform is a very extensive, technical thing. If you don’t do it, you suffer significant challenges.”

    Col. Frank Tate, the Army’s chief of aviation force development, said he is preparing to head to Fort Rucker, Ala., in mid-April to attend a conference that would discuss the effects of seawater on the Army’s rotary-wing aircraft.

    Read more at the Army Times.


    http://wtkr.com/2014/04/14/army-cons...on-navy-ships/
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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    US Army Guard Agrees to Controversial Apache Plan

    Apr. 8, 2014 - 03:45AM
    By PAUL McLEARY




    The active US Army will receive National Guard Apache attack helicopters under a new plan. (US Army)

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    WASHINGTON — In a surprising move, the head of the US National Guard Bureau has given his blessing to the US Army’s plan to move all of the Guard’s Apache attack helicopters into the active force while receiving several hundred Black Hawk and Lakota multi-use helicopters in return.

    “As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we have fought, and we have discussed many, many times, these topics,” the National Guard Bureau chief, Army Gen. Frank Grass, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday “And I provided my best military advice. I’ve assessed the risk. I’ve given the cost.


    “But the decision’s been made, Mr. Chairman,” he said. “And my job now is to begin to look at the effects across the states, and figure out how we’re going to execute this plan.”


    The general’s acquiescence came as a surprise in what many anticipated to be a contentious hearing, especially after Grass told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee on April 3, “I do not agree with the proposal to take all Apaches out of the guard.”


    Grass testified before the committee with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno, who has been campaigning for the aviation restructuring for months, but has encountered stiff resistance from the Guard leadership and sharp questions from Congress.


    The chief emphasized that the aviation plan is a necessity given the tightening fiscal picture for the Army, and the expense of upgrading its helicopter fleets.


    “No one is fully satisfied with the final outcome, including myself,” he offered. “However, the reality is the funding in the future will not allow us to have everything we may want. These cuts will still occur, even if we delay our decisions or fail to address the issue as the total Army.

    The results will be hollowing out of our Army.”


    The plan calls for the Army to retire its fleet of Kiowa Warrior scout helicopters and replace them with the Guard’s Apaches, which will team with Army drones to perform the scout mission. Overall, the Army will lose 687 aircraft, including 600 Kiowas.


    The active component will also eliminate three of its 13 Combat Aviation Brigades while the Guard will retain all of its 10 aviation brigades.


    The Army expects to save about $12 billion over the next several years by taking this approach, beginning with $2 billion in fiscal 2015 alone.


    The strategy “salvages our plans to modernize our aviation fleet,” said Col. Frank Tate, the Army’s chief of aviation force development, at an event across town at the same time the chiefs were testifying on Capitol Hill.


    “We were lowering our rates of procurement on our biggest systems” due to the cost of maintaining seven different helicopter platforms, Tate told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    The Army’s proposal to get rid of two models of the Kiowa and the TH-67 trainer helicopter would eliminate three aircraft models of the Army’s seven, as it continues to modernize the Chinook, Apache and Black Hawk until replacement helicopters begin to enter the fleet some time in the 2030s.

    While the Army might be losing helicopters, it is increasingly eyeing shipboard operations for the 690 Apaches that it is keeping.


    Operating from ships at sea “seems to be a growth capability, and we do sense that there is increasing demand out there” in South Korea and the Central Command area of operations, said the Army’s director of aviation, Col. John Lindsay.


    “We’ve gotta make sure that we have the appropriate demand signal coming in from the combatant commanders,” however, in order to determine “how much maritime capability does the Army need to invest in,” he added.


    Lindsay acknowledged that over the long term, “we still have some work to do” to determine how much the Army wants — or needs — to invest in operating Apache helicopters from naval vessels.


    In a nod to Marine Corps sensitivities over the issue, Tate was quick to point out that flying Army helicopters from the decks of ships isn’t necessarily anything new. He was involved in operations in Haiti in the early 1990s where the Army flew Apaches off the back of short-deck Navy frigates.


    “The Army is not new to this idea of maritime operations and ship operations,” he insisted. ■


    http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140408/DEFREG02/304080030/US-Army-Guard-Agrees-Controversial-Apache-Plan
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  4. #4
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    National Guard to move Apache helicopters to Army



    Published: 4/16 7:38 am
    Updated: 4/16 8:21 am

    TUPELO, Miss (WTVA) __ In a surprising move, the head of the U-S National Guard Bureau has given his blessing to the
    U-S- Army’s plan to move all of the guard’s Apache attack helicopters into the active force.

    In return, the Guard will receive several hundred Black Hawk and Lakota multi-use helicopters.

    General Frank Grass' decision comes as a surprise since his statements in April that he did not agree with the proposal to take the Apaches out of the Guard.

    The plan calls for the Army to retire its fleet of Kiowa Warrior Scout helicopters and replace them with the Guard’s Apaches.

    The Army's Chief of Staff emphasizes that the aviation plan is necessray given the recent budget cuts to the military.

    The Apache is flown by the 104-th Cavalry based in Tupelo.


    http://www.wtva.com/news/local/story...z08E6qERA.cspx
    Last edited by JohnDoe2; 04-17-2014 at 09:08 PM.
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    1. UH-60A/L Black Hawk | Military.com

      www.military.com/equipment/uh-60a-l-black-hawk‎

      Military.com
      The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter is the U.S. Army's primary medium lift utility transport and air assault aircraft. The UH-60 Black Hawk is a twin-engined medium ...
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  6. #6
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    People demanded less spending.

    Military cuts are part of less spending.

    Those are the cold hard facts.
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    The 10 Largest Combat Air Forces in the World

    Published by Daniel R Deakin on February 20, 2014 in Rich List

    1. United States Air Force: 3,318 combat aircraft

    @
    http://www.alipac.us/f19/10-largest-...-world-299125/
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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